A little about what's been going on lately...

So, I feel like I can't hold this in much longer!  I feel like I've been a little absent from blogging lately, but there's been A LOT going on that has kept me from my computer!  The first thing (and most exciting thing!) that's happened to me?  My husband and I have found out that we're expecting!!! :-D

I'm only about 7 weeks along, but boy oh boy am I feeling it!  School has been a drag, as well as that constant nausea all day.  I've resorted to showing some of my younger classes movies because I just can't seem to keep up!  I've also noticed that the more I talk, the more sick I feel at times!  This means our output of projects has slowed down a bit...I just keep telling myself 5 more weeks to go and I should be back to normal (just in time to put up the art show!).

The second thing that's happened?  Budget cuts at my district.  The very good news about this is that it appears that my position will not be affected in any way.  In the last 10 years, whenever there were cuts, a majority of them happened at the elementary end, so they plan on cutting more at the high school end.  The superintendent sent a list of discussed cuts that was created at the last board meeting, and I was not on there!  Whew!

There are two positions that are retiring this year that won't be filled, and it looks like they are offering an early retirement package to three others with the anticipation that they won't be filled, or at least won't be filled at full time.  Unfortunately, though, for the art department, (which was second on the cut list), they are looking at cutting art electives.  This really stinks because I was hoping to become full time after the art teacher retired so that I could try and liven up the high school end with some new electives!

It's not really known yet if I will become a K-12 teacher next year, but I'm guessing not.  It will depend on if the art teacher in the high school takes the early retirement package or stays on for another year.  If she decides to stay on, she'll be cut down from full time. :-/  At this point, I don't think they could get away with making me teach K-12.  I've done a little research and found the NYS requirements for art (when I talk about "the arts," this encompasses visual arts, music, dance and theater).

1.  Pre-K and Kindergarten programs must only include activities that revolve around the arts.  These can be done in the classroom.

2.  Grades 1-3 must receive instruction in the arts to the equivalent of 20% of the week be devoted to visual arts, music, theater, etc.  In 4th grade the time allocated must be 10%.  It is only recommended that a certified Arts teacher give this instruction
At the rate they plan on cutting positions, they would have to hire someone on just to teach these younger levels if I was made 5-12 art.  Right now art is used to give these teachers their daily free periods.  Because they're planning on cutting at music and gym as well, it would be impossible to pick up the slack if art class was eliminated from these younger grades.  Also, at the rate they need to cut, the aides will be taking over duties such as lunch detention, lunch monitors and in-house detention, duties that were rotated between high school teachers.  Now with the lower number of high school teachers per subject area, these teachers will lose their duties and gain another class or two.

3.  Grades 5 and 6 must receive 10% instruction in the arts taught by a certified arts teacher.

4. Grades 7 & 8 must receive instruction according to the NYS art standards.  1/2 the study must be art and 1/2 the study must be music.  Guidelines recommend that both be taught to students in 7th and 8th grade, however it can be split.  (In my district, 7th grade receives art for 1/2 a year only.  There is no 8th grade art.  Most students cover the music aspect by participating in chorus or band.)  Certified art teachers must provide the instruction at this level.  If AIS services are required, these amounts may be lessened, but the arts cannot be eliminated.

5. All students in grades 9-12 are required to complete one unit of art study in order to graduate with a diploma and must be taught by a certified art teacher. All public schools must provide students with the chance to participate in a 3-unit or 5-unit sequence in arts starting at grade 9.  The three unit gives students a chance to receive a regents diploma.  The 5-unit gives students a chance to receive a regents with advanced designation.  Now this is the part that interests me...if my district gets rid of art electives, none of their students will be able to graduate with a regents diploma.  I only say this because they are also talking about getting rid of music electives as part of the cuts (aside from band and chorus).  I don't think that the students can fulfill the arts requirement by only taking music courses past Studio Art...any NYS art teachers know about this?  Phyl, you mentioned something about this in my last post....  Plus, this makes students have to take music/band/chorus even if they don't want to in order to earn a regents diploma!

Budget Cuts and Such...

Yesterday was my day off, in which I missed a faculty meeting.  Unfortunately, I wish I would have been here for it!  

In Northern New York, many of our schools are struggling with funding.  We have quite a few school districts that have essentially run out of money are are defaulting on their bills.  The hard part is that in some areas, our schools are so spread out that it's hard to combine districts.  But, on the other hand, some would be good to combine, but the buildings wouldn't be able to handle the influx of students.  

My second year of teaching, we were on a contingency budget.  As hard as it seemed, it really wasn't that hard.  Our administrators squirreled away money in secret funds to help up through the year if we ran out of supplies or wanted to do an impromptu field trip.  

Yesterday at our faculty meeting, we were informed by our superintendent that the business manager we had last year from Boces essentially "screwed up" and now, our district essentially only has enough money in our surplus fund to get us through one more school year before we run out of money.

It was told that next year, there will be job cuts that this district has never had to approach before...jobs will be cut that they have never dreamed of cutting. That being said, it makes me slightly nervous. The high school art teacher is planning on teaching one more year and then retiring, so I suppose worse case scenario, I'm cut or brought down to 50% until she leaves, as she has more seniority.

Our budget needs to be approved by the board by next week, so I'm sure we'll find out who will be getting pink slips by then.

As far as I know, art only needs to be offered to 4th-6th grade, 7th grade and there has to be a studio art class offered as well in NYS. That means I could be cut to 50%...however I know that would be a problem because the music and gym department can't pick up the slack without hiring another teacher for free periods...that's the one thing that keeps me hanging on.

Maybe they'll offer the high school teacher a retirement incentive...chances are I'd become a K-12 teacher or at least full time, and someone else would be hired at a very part time rate.

How many of you have faced this before? I obviously have always known that it could happen to me, given the subject of choice that I wanted to teach. At this point, I am taking everything with a grain of salt until everything is figured out. I have the feeling though, that this will be a very stressful end of the year now. Waiting to see if the budget will pass our finicky public will be hard. They have not had a raise in school taxes in about 10 years. Our budget last year wasn't passed because there was going to be a raise in taxes for the public. It will be interesting to see how things go...